


Honourable People

by Ultra



Series: Moments in Time [18]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e15 The Maltese Falcon Job, F/M, Promises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2020-03-02 05:57:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18805114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Parker doesn't deal well with emotions; Eliot tries to help.





	Honourable People

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for betty_mraz for Leverageland on Livejournal.

It was all surprisingly calm at the apartment. Nate’s turning himself in to let them get away, it meant they weren’t on the run anymore, they were safe. They talked about flying far away from Boston, but in the end they were all looking for familiarity over an escape. They went right back to McRory's and climbed the stairs to the place Nate had called home.

Hardison kept the girls company. Sophie was almost catatonic with the shock, Parker was hardly any different. Eliot had to get cleaned up. He took one last look at each of them and retreated to the shower. He was gone just long enough to wash off the blood, patch up his injuries, and throw on some clean clothes, but when he got back his little thief was gone.

“Did Parker go home?” he asked, finding it odd.

It wasn’t strange for her to run out on any given situation, but from this one, losing a member of the family she built up around herself, he figured she’d want to be close a while. Especially with Sophie back, it didn’t make sense for her to split that way.

“She muttered something about the bar,” the grifter said softly, eyes barely focusing.

Eliot nodded once and headed out the door. He couldn’t see a reason why Parker would be in the bar of all places. She wasn’t much of a drinker as a rule. Still, he soon found her down there, sat in Jimmy Ford’s old spot that had fast become Nate’s own. She had a scotch in her hand and looked the least like herself that Eliot had ever seen her.

“Hey,” he said softly, trying not to startle her - as if he ever could!

“Hey,” she replied flatly, reaching for a second glass and pouring two shots this time.

She scooted the drink across the bar top and Eliot easily caught it as he sat down on the stool next to hers.

“Whatcha doin’ down here, Parker?” he asked, trying to see her face better, but she shied away.

He was certain she’d been crying, which should’ve been a surprise, but it wasn’t. Parker didn’t often do emotions, at least she didn’t seem to, but none of them were exactly robots. Even Eliot had feelings, even if they didn’t show most of the time. The last few days had been rough, and then to have Nate hand himself in to save their hides, well, emotions were running high for just about everybody right now.

“I keep thinking,” she said then, before Eliot had a chance to wonder how best to approach the topic of feelings. “It’s going around and around in my head and I can’t... I can’t make it okay,” she frowned hard, finally looking over at him.

“Sometimes things just aren’t okay,” he said lamely, and he knew it, but at least it was honest. “Sometimes no matter how hard you try to figure people out-”

“I can’t even figure myself out,” she interrupted, shaking her head sadly, before downing another shot.

Eliot followed her lead, watching her out of the corner of his eye the whole time.

Parker winced each time she swallowed the fiery liquid down but seemed hell-bent on doing it anyway. Maybe Eliot should have stopped her, but it was hardly his place. Besides, if she needed something to numb the pain, he could understand that.

“How do you do it?” she asked then as she refilled both their glasses.

“Do what?” he asked curiously, genuinely lost at this point.

“I mean, if a guy comes at me, and he’s a bad guy and he’s gonna hurt me,” she explained, “I fight back, the way you taught me, and I never feel bad about hurting them.”

“You shouldn’t,” Eliot agreed easily, growling just a little into those words.

The idea of anybody even trying to hurt Parker made his blood boil in his veins.

“But this was different,” she told him, a shake in her voice that she couldn’t help, a haunted look in her eyes that Eliot didn’t understand until he gave her the chance to properly explain. “When Hardison said Tara was... that she met Kadjic, I just... I lost it,” she admitted. “I had her by the throat,” she relived the moment, holding up the hand that had squeezed her team-mate’s wind-pipe so tight. “I was dangling her over the edge and... and...”

Parker didn’t want to cry, she really didn’t, but she couldn’t help it. Her voice went away and tears streaked down her face unbidden. Too much had happened today, way too much for a person like her to deal with. She’d got this team built up around her like family and it had all started falling apart piece by piece. That on top of the fact she was just now realising what she was almost capable of, it was way too much.

“I wanted to drop her Eliot, I wanted to and I could’ve,” she sobbed openly, feeling so stupid but unable to help it, it just hurt so bad inside.

“Oh darlin’,” he said as he reached out to her on instinct and pulled her tight against him. “You couldn’ta done that,” he told her, rubbing her back as she cried hard into his shoulder. “There’s no way you ever woulda done that.”

Eliot was certain in what he said. Sure, Parker had been beyond mad when she thought Tara betrayed her team, but he knew way better than to think she was capable of killing another person. She may be a criminal, the most uncatchable thief, but deep inside Parker had a good heart, she really did.

“I could’ve,” she said softly, words obscured since her face was still pressed against him.

“Hey,” he said sharply, holding her by the tops of her arms as he pushed her away just enough to see her face, “Now you listen to me, Parker,” he told her firmly but softly, desperate to make his point but never ever wanting to scare her. “You are a good person, ya hear me? You were mad, I get that, and you wanted to hurt Tara, but you wouldn’t ever have dropped her. I know you, and you don’t have it in you,” he swore, knowing from experience what that kind of thing took, knowing she didn’t have it.

“How can you know that?” she asked with a sniff, the one question he really wished she hadn’t chosen.

“I just do,” he told her with a sigh, reaching out to push her hair back behind her ear for her. “You’re not that person, Parker, and I’m here to make sure you never have to be. You understand?”

Parker nodded her head then, all words deserting her. She knew just exactly what he meant, and far from being a scary prospect, she loved Eliot all the more right now. It seemed weird still to love anybody, but when it came to her team, she had no other word to describe how she felt about them. She never told them, but it was always there. 

“Now Nate’s gone... Well, you’re not going away, right?” she checked shakily, wary of showing weakness but figuring it was a little late for that right now.

“I’m here as long as you want me, darlin’,” he promised her faithfully.

It was enough to make her smile through the veil of tears at least.

For now, that was enough for Eliot.


End file.
